The application relates generally to a low fluid pressure and high fluid pressure manifold system operable in oil and gas production.
Hydraulic fracturing, sometimes called “fracing” or “fracking” is a process for increasing the flow of oil or gas from a well that typically involves pumping specific types of liquids into a well, under pressures that are high enough to fracture the rock forming interconnected fractures that serve as pore spaces for the movement of oil and natural gas to a wellbore. The hydraulic fracturing process typically involves providing one or more sources of fracturing fluid to be directed into a well, one or more fracturing pumps for producing high pressure fluid flow and the necessary conduit for conveying the fracturing fluid. Hydraulic fracturing operations typically include a piece of equipment called a manifold that receives and directs low pressure fluid to a bank of hydraulic fracturing pumps (“fracturing pumps” or “frac pumps”) and receives high pressure fluid from the frac pumps via a frac pump output header or “missile” at pressures up to 103.4 MPa (15,000 psi) and conveys the high pressure fluid toward a tree and wellhead of a wellbore. To reduce the area or space used at a well site, one common arrangement of frac pumps involves using two opposing rows often referred to as a “right hand pump bank” and a “left hand pump bank” of frac pumps. Opposing rows of frac pumps are well-known by the skilled artisan and an example of two opposing rows of frac pumps may be seen in United States Patent Application Publication Number 20140277772, titled “Fracturing pump identification and communication” published on Sep. 18, 2014, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
As of the date of this application, one conventional manifold in common use is provided as either a manifold trailer or as a separate manifold that is trucked to a well site on a flatbed trailer and either operated on the flatbed or removed and placed on the ground for operation. Exemplary manifold trailers are commercially available from sources such as Forum Energy Technologies, Houston, Tex., U.S.A. and Industrial Diesel Manufacturing and Service, Ltd., Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A. In addition to the manifold trailer described in Patent Application Publication Number 20140277772 referenced above, another exemplary manifold trailer is described in United States Patent Application Publication Number 20170122060, titled “Manifold trailer having a single high pressure output manifold” published on May 4, 2017, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. As known in the art, these types of manifold trailers include an array of high pressure conduit, low pressure conduit and manual valves. Because these types of manifolds are designed for operation with ten or twelve stations, i.e., points of connection, for connecting to each of the frac pumps, they are typically quite heavy and large having lengths from about 15.0 meters to 18.0 meters (50.0 feet to 60.0 feet). Unfortunately, some hydraulic fracturing operations do not require the use of an entire manifold of ten to twelve stations. For example, some hydraulic fracturing operations require only six or fewer fracturing pumps. In such instances, only part of the manifold is actually in use meaning that there is a wasted expense associated with the cost of using a ten or twelve station manifold. Also, because of the complexity of construction of such manifolds, if a particular section of the manifold needs repair or inspection the entire manifold unit is typically removed and repaired off site requiring a different replacement manifold to be inserted into operation.
Another type of manifold currently in use includes a skid mounted manifold of what is referred to as a modular design allowing a manifold to be oriented in an array of configurations. This type of manifold provides an arrangement of fluid lines, fittings and valves (“frac iron”) all downstream of the missile designed for receiving high pressure fluid from a single line and delivering the high pressure fluid to one or multiple wellheads of a well site. However, this type of manifold makes use of an outlay of frac pumps different than the two opposing rows of frac pumps described above and are not necessarily effective for reducing the congestion of equipment at a well site.
Overcoming the foregoing issues is desired.